It’s impossible to ignore the atmosphere of change and rebellion in 2017. Just months ago, Britain voted for Brexit and America for Donald Trump. We’ll be exploring the implications of both this year – and for many years to come.
A century on from the Russian Revolution, the festival hall will explore why it happened and what it meant. We also look at revolution more generally – in Latin America and Cuba; within the Labour government of Clement Attlee following the second world war; and through our 2017 Coleridge Lectures, a series inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s radical Bristol lectures of 1795.
In addition, we’re examining the fourth industrial revolution and the rise of robots; assessing the impact of the Abortion Act – one of the most revolutionary legislative acts of the 1960s; looking at the decline in voting and voter loyalty; exploring the revolt on the right and political rebels; and debating new feminism.
Our third Vintage Publishers Lecture will be given by Nicholas Hytner, who will look back at his 12 years as artistic director of the National Theatre. We are also delighted to welcome Susannah Clapp for this year’s Observer Lecture on the state of the arts, plus Man Booker prize winners Paul Beatty and Arundhati Roy will be making special visits.
And there’s more: a look at how women are being rediscovered in the world of science; Mexico’s brave journalists and their fight for a free press; the rise in activism among the young; the life of surrealist artist and writer Leonora Carrington; plus the ideas and enduring popularity of The Archers. There are sessions on race and politics, including a screening of I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary about the writer James Baldwin.
In the autumn and into 2018, we’ll be marking 25 years of the work of the company that founded and still runs the Festival of Ideas – Bristol Cultural Development Partnership. We’ll be looking at what’s changed over that quarter century and what we might expect in the future. Also taking place in the autumn is our second Festival of the Future City (18–20 October) and our sixth Festival of Economics (16–18 November). Expect revolutions, rebellions and radicalism to feature in these, too.
Coleridge Lectures 2017
Hate, Hostility and Human Rights – A Brave New World
Liberty director Martha Spurrier reflects on how human rights can create a national identity of tolerance, diversity and equality. (20 April)
The Revolution of Feeling in the 1790s
Historian Rachel Hewitt shows how attitudes to emotion moved from the social view of the Enlightenment to a new culture of the subjective, individual experience. (27 April)
Rediscovering the 19th-Century Marx
Gareth Stedman Jones, author of Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion, looks at how Marx came to his revolutionary ideas in an age of intellectual ferment and the impact they had. (3 May)
Failed Revolutions and Lessons of History
Historian David Olusoga explores the world revolutions of 1919, what worked, what failed and what long-term lessons they can teach us. (25 May)
Edmund Burke
Jesse Norman MP looks at Edmund Burke’s revolutionary life and work and what it means today. (16 June)
Revolution in the 20th century
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
China Miéville asks how an autocratic monarchy became the world’s first socialist state. (5 May)
October (1928)
Sergei Eisenstein marked the Russian Revolution’s 10th anniversary with this sweeping historical epic based on US journalist John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook the World. (7 May)
Demain (2015)
This film features pioneers from around the world who are reinventing agriculture, energy, economy, democracy and education. (8 May)
I Am Cuba (1964)
In the final days of the Batista regime, four stories illustrate the ills that led to the revolution and the call to arms that cut across society. (14 May)
The Hour of the Furnaces (1968)
A three-part documentary about the struggle for liberation waged throughout Latin America. (21 May)
I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
Raoul Peck’s acclaimed new documentary is followed by A Reply to the “N” Question, which also draws on the work of James Baldwin to explore black representation and the function of the word “nigger” in the “white” imagination. (27 May)
Reds (1981)
Warren Beatty’s film about the US journalists John Reed and Louise Bryant examines the lives of the two political radicals. (28 May)
The Road to Revolution
Historians Helen Rappaport and Daniel Beer bring to life the brutal realities of the tsarist regime. (1 June)
Politics, Economics, Rebels and Radicals
Young People’s Festival of Ideas: Activism
The third young people’s event this year examines the rise of activism. How effective is it in the current political climate? Is online activism as effective as taking to the streets? (17 May)
The Road to Somewhere
The Brexit vote highlighted a divided nation. Journalist David Goodhart on the social divide between the mobile identity of the people from “Anywhere” and the more marginalised, roots-based identity of the people from “Somewhere”. (20 May)
Power, Control and the Fight for Our Future
Writer and artist Raoul Martinez calls for a profound transformation in the way we think about democracy, equality and our identities. (22 May)
Doughnut Economics
Renegade economist Kate Raworth identifies the ways in which mainstream economics has led us astray and creates a new, cutting-edge economic model fit for the 21st century. (23 May)
The Future of Islam
Writer Tariq Ramadan explores Islam’s spirituality, principles, rituals, diversity and evolution. (24 May)
Britain, Torture and Official Secrets
Journalist Ian Cobain reveals how a complex bureaucratic machine has grown around the British state since 1889, allowing governments to evade accountability and a culture of secrecy to flourish. (24 May)
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Activist and journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a wake-up call to a nation in denial about the structural and institutional racism occurring in our homes, offices and communities. (26 May)
Rebels and Radicals
Researcher and writer Jamie Bartlett, independent MP Douglas Carswell, analyst Claudia Chwalisz and journalist John Harris explore rebellion and radicals, where the push for change is coming from and what might happen in the future. (27 May)
The Sorrows of Mexico
Journalists Lydia Cacho and Anabel Hernández explore the depth of corruption and violence in Mexico, and the fight for a free press. (27 May)
Blood Oil
Leif Wenar on how the west can lead the next great moral revolution by ending its dependence on authoritarian oil. (31 May)
Citizen Clem
Clement Attlee’s government was the most radical in UK history. John Bew, author of Citizen Clem, on what Attlee means today for Britain and Labour. (1 June)
Post-Truth
Evan Davis draws on behavioural science, economics and psychology to chart a route through the muddy waters of the post-truth age. (10 June)
The Social Implications of Science and Technology
MegaTech: Technology in 2050
Daniel Franklin and Kenneth Cukier (the Economist) imagine how big developments in technology might shape the future and tackle the environmental, economic and social challenges. Chaired by Jaya Chakrabarti (20 May)
Herding Hemingway’s Cats – Understanding How Our Genes Work
Scientist Kat Arney explores the mysteries hidden in our genes, which, far from being a fixed, deterministic blueprint, are much more random and wobbly than anyone expected. (22 May)
Fully Connected
Julia Hobsbawm shows us how to reclaim time, space and identity in our hyper-connected world and avoid drowning in data and deadlines. (23 May)
Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong
Science journalist Angela Saini investigates the ferocious gender wars that have been fought in the fields of biology, psychology and anthropology and uncovers how female scientists are being rediscovered. (25 May)
When Robots Rule the Earth
What would a world ruled by robots look like – and what would be our place in it? Applying decades of expertise in physics, computer science and economics, Robin Hanson paints a detailed picture of a world dominated by the first truly smart robots. (1 June)
Arts and Fiction
Vintage Lecture 2017: 12 Years at the National Theatre
Nicholas Hytner talks about The History Boys and War Horse, reaching a broader audience and the challenges of reconciling art and commerce. (21 May)
The Archers: Women of Ambridge
Patricia Greene (Jill Archer), scriptwriters Mary Cutler and Keri Davies, and comedian Angela Barnes discuss the serial’s popularity and its listeners with chair, Helen Taylor. (27 May)
Leonora Carrington
Joanna Moorhead tells the story of the late Leonora Carrington: novelist, artist and one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s. (30 May)
The Walworth Beauty
Author and poet Michèle Roberts discusses her work, in particular her new novel, in which Victorian ghosts of London’s past erupt into the present. (31 May)
The Sellout
Paul Beatty discusses his Man Booker prize-winning novel in which, following the death of his father, the African American narrator attempts to reinstate slavery and segregate the local high school. (5 June)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Acclaimed novelist Arundhati Roy, author of the Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things, talks about her work and her new novel. (7 June)
Observer Lecture 2017:
Susannah Clapp – Sit in the Stalls and See the World
We need the arts more than ever – only by imagining a difference can we make one. By being in an art that is live, in the same location as characters, and in real time, we can escape the tyranny of the computer screen. Theatre can alter our sense of space, make us listen more acutely and watch more attentively. Susannah Clapp began writing about theatre for the Observer 20 years ago. She looks at some of the productions that have been most important to her, including Jerry Springer: The Opera, and explores the stage’s slow awakening to feminism, one of the biggest changes of the last two decades. (2 June)
Feminism
There Is No Such Thing as Over-Sharing
Feminist and anti-FGM campaigner Nimko Ali shares stories of pregnancy and periods, orgasms and the menopause, the relationships women have with their vaginas and speaking out with honesty. (25 May)
Everywoman
Labour MP Jess Phillips talks about her fiercely socialist and feminist family, her student days in Leeds, being a newbie in parliament and her surprise victory in Birmingham Yardley in the 2015 general election. (26 May)
A Woman’s Work
From campaigning with small children to increasing the number of women in parliament, Harriet Harman gives an account of the progress (and occasional setbacks) made in the fight to change how Britain has been governed since the 1970s. (27 May)
Out of the Backstreet: 50 Years of the Abortion Act
Kerry Abel (Abortion Rights chair), journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge, Sally Sheldon (professor of law, University of Kent) and sociologist Jackie West discuss the abortion act, from examining how it was won and commemorating the activists to exploring current barriers to abortion access. (27 May)
Health, Living and Dying
On Living
Hospice chaplain Kerry Egan found that the dying want to tell stories of hope and regret, long-held secrets and love. She talks about how to live a life without regrets. (20 May)
Fragile Lives
After conducting more than 11,000 heart operations, Stephen Westaby offers an exceptional insight into the world of heart surgery and how it feels to hold someone’s life in your hands. (24 May)
A Smell of Burning: The Story of Epilepsy
Colin Grant traces the history of epilepsy and the pioneering doctors whose extraordinary breakthroughs finally helped gain an understanding of how the brain works. (26 May)
Environment and Animal Rights
Client Earth
Lawyer James Thornton and writer Martin Goodman explain how, by combining legal expertise with scientific understanding, it is possible to stop the planet from committing ecological suicide. (22 May)
Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were
Philip Lymbery exposes the role industrial farming plays globally in the plight of animals facing extinction and explores what people can do to save the planet with healthy food. (23 May)
Other events
The Kim Kardashian Principle
Academic Jeetendr Sehdev explores how social media stars attract such obsessive attention and what they can teach us about making our own ideas and products break through. (9 May)
Man Alive: Becoming a Man
Transgender writer Thomas Page McBee explores how we all struggle to create ourselves – and how this often requires risks – and grapples with questions of legacy and forgiveness, love and violence, agency and invisibility. (25 May)
How to book tickets online
For a full programme of events go to ideasfestival.co.uk
Events take place at venues across the city, including At-Bristol, Bristol Old Vic, Spike Island, St George’s Bristol, Watershed, Waterstones and Wills Memorial Building. Each venue operates an individual box office, with phone and online booking. Some events are free, with restrictions on the number of tickets per booking.
The Observer is the festival’s media partner.
